People in the know said plans were afoot to begin the sale of all food grains through online, with a major quantity through auctions that would be later extended to other commodities.
Prices have continued to move up in Delhi's markets, wholesale and retail, on supply worries and spoilage due to record cold weather.
One97 Communications, which owns Paytm, was awarded the title sponsorship rights for India's international home cricket matches for four years after a winning bid of Rs 2.42 crore per match.
Police personnel in adequate strength were deployed across the state to maintain law and order, officials said.
The agriculture ministry, in the last few weeks, issued guidelines and letters to states to ensure agriculture and food products reach consumers in a timely manner, while farmers don't have to come to the mandis to sell them.
The model or average price for a kg of onion was Rs 6 on Monday -- the lowest in this late kharif and rabi harvesting season, so far. While poorer quality kharif onions traded at Rs 3 a kg, the price of export quality was Rs 9 a kg.
'Political parties are following the Divide and Rule policy to break the unity of farmers.'
The BSE Sensex ended 102 points or 0.3% down at 27,459.
Deficient rains in west, flooding in north play havoc with crop cycles.
Finding itself trapped in a cul de sac, all things considered, a negotiated climbdown at this juncture seems the only sensible course available for the Centre, suggests Virendra Kapoor.
Let the implementation of reforms be left to the discretion of individual states and ensure an end to the illogical stir, argues Virendra Kapoor.
To tide over the difficulties due to incessant shutdowns, several farmers in Maharashtra have turned into aggregators and started selling their produce without the help of mandis or agents. They have started contracting with bulk consumers like hypermarkets and co-operative housing societies to sell their produce directly.
While the new COVID cases and total active cases are going up, the administration is focusing on testing, contact tracing and treatment.
Data shows that the current system of decentralised marketing and centralised procurement helps Punjab and Haryana farmers the most, while its efficacy in other states has been poor. Experts and farm leaders say success of the laws rests heavily on implementation.
The government's predicament is a result of its own doing: That of not ensuring adequate buy-in by the stakeholders before passage of the laws, notes Vivek Gumaste.
Modi also said that presently a 'new trend' is being seen in the country where protests are based on creating doubts through misinformation while union ministers urged farmers not to have any misconceptions about the three agriculture reform legislations.
Vashi APMC traders see supplies to Mumbai impacted over movement curbs. A number of trucks sent to Mumbai from the market has reduced from 600 per day in recent times to around 300.
Retail prices of tomato had touched almost Rs 80 per kg in major cities owing to short supply and transportation cost over the past few weeks following heavy downpour.
In a meeting with the President on behalf of these 18 non-National Democratic Alliance parties, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad said he has requested the President to return the bills, and only give his assent after they have been passed after following proper rules and procedures.
Normally, kharif sowing of vegetable seeds starts during the first week of May across the country. Farmers start preparing their fields to make them suitable for kharif sowing during the second fortnight of April. Now, however, faced with the lockdown, farmers are in a hurry to clear their fields of rabi crop and prepare for kharif planting. With a normal monsoon forecast this year, they are doing all they can to take advantage of pre-monsoon showers.
With auctions unable to proceed, the median onion price declined 17 per cent or Rs 6 a kg to trade at Rs 30 a kg on Monday, with arrivals of around 500 tonnes.
Speaking at industry association CII's annual session, PM Modi said the government has taken tough steps to fight the coronavirus pandemic and has also taken care of the economy. "On the one hand we have to safe the lives of our people and on the other hand we have to stabilise the economy and speed up the economy," he said. "Yes, we will definitely get our growth back," he asserted.
Regulated electronic platforms such as e-spot markets or spot exchanges may be deemed as authorised markets.
Trade sources believe that tomato supply from Maharashtra has slumped due to incessant rain in the state towards the fag end of the monsoon season, reports Dilip Kumar Jha.
Vegetable arrivals at mandis, especially in Maharashtra, have declined by more than 50 per cent since the beginning of the month.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India awarded the title sponsorship for all international series and the domestic tournaments in India for the year 2013-14 to Star Private Ltd. and ESPN at the base price of Rs two crore per fixture, considerably low compared to their previous deal with Airtel on Thursday.
Union leaders, who came out of the meeting venue shouting slogans, said the talks remained deadlocked and some of them threatened to boycott any further meetings if no solution was found at Thursday's meeting.
Assembly elections in Maharashtra are scheduled later this month. The farmer protests are likely to affect the results, especially in the onion-growing belt of Nashik.
'Rather than cutting and pasting from advanced economies, we should use basic economic principles to think about what is right for India at the stage of development at which we are,' says Chief Economic Advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian.
'India is not so distant from years of high and entrenched inflationary expectations that it should start trying to play games with the economy the way the West's central bankers think they are entitled to,' argues Mihir S Sharma.
'Three external members of the first MPC are respected researchers with excellent academic background, but there is no harm in considering academicians with diverse backgrounds such as finance and labour along with economists for this body,' recommends Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
The Indian cricket board's marketing committee is to meet in Mumbai on May 31 to wrap up the much-delayed team sponsorship details for which the BCCI issued a tender notice inviting bids on Monday.
With almost all opposition parties and several trade unions backing the 'Bharat Bandh' and many announcing parallel protests in support of the farmers, the Centre has issued an advisory directing all the states and Union Territories to tighten security and ensure COVID guidelines are followed.
The video conference, which began at 11 am, comes amid indications that the central government may extend the nationwide lockdown with some possible relaxations even as Punjab and Odisha have already announced extending the lockdown beyond April 14 when the current spell of 21-day shutdown across the country ends on Tuesday.
There have been several instances of traders dumping fruits and vegetables outside mandis. Or of farmers dumping produce outside their villages or feeding them to their animals.
Devidas Parbhane said with onion prices touching new lows, farmers like me may be meeting the same fate as other farmers who committed suicide
The prime minister held a meeting with chief ministers via video-conferencing, and said it was imperative to work on war footing, identify hotspots, encircle them and ensure that coronavirus does not spread out.
With almost all opposition parties too backing the 'Bharat bandh' and many announcing parallel protests in support of the farmers, the Centre has issued an advisory directing the states and Union Territories to tighten security and ensure peace is maintained.
'The SJM has requested the government to bring a change in the law which will ensure MSP as the floor price for all farmers below which nobody should buy anything from them.'
"Indian markets (are) well placed to absorb the US Fed rate hike. Gradual approach in future increases augurs well for emerging markets," Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das has tweeted.
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